In communication systems, it is frequently necessary to determine the quality of a communication link. An approach for producing an estimated signal-to-noise figure of merit is disclosed in J. K. Holmes, Coherent Spread Spectrum Systems, pp. 615-619, 1982.
The Holmes publication discloses various equations for calculating a signal-to-noise ratio estimator utilizing variables which represent the mean value of various samples taken from the data together with a value for the sample variance. The publication does not disclose the manner in which the sample mean and sample variance data can be produced in a practical, real world system.
The present invention permits a figure of merit value for a received digitally-encoded message to be readily produced utilizing components which can be easily implemented. This and other advantages of the subject invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading the following Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention, together with the drawings.